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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Windows 2000 on Mac Parallels

Windows 2000 Boot Disks

We first need images of the 4 Windows 2000 Boot Disks. After we mount the images, we can use /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app to turn them into *.fdd images for Parallels.

Mount the downloaded disk images by double-clicking on them.

Run the Disk Utility.app.

Select mounted disk n

Click on New Image.

Name the image disk_n.

Select read/write Image Format with no Encryption.

Change the name on the filesystem from disk_n.dmg to disk_n.fdd

Start Parallels

We can start /Applications/Parallels/Parallels Desktop.app and select New... Custom OS Installation using Windows 2000. My personal preference is to increase the default memory size to at least 512MB and to use Bridged Ethernet.When the virtual machine starts, the floppy drive is not automatically connected, so we get the error No boot device available, press Enter to continue.

We need to stop the virtual machine, click Floppy Disk on the Configuration screen, select Connect at startup and browse to the disk1.fdd Image File that we created earlier.

When we restart the virtual machine, the Windows 2000 Setup should appear.

We can follow the prompts and switch out the disks by clicking on the floppy in the lower right corner of the screen.After the 4th disk has been read, then we can insert the Windows 2000 install CD into the CD ROM drive and it will automatically be connected by Parallels.

Install Parallels Tools

After the OS has been installed and we have logged in for the first time, the display is configured for VGA 16 colors with a maximum resolution of 800x600. This problem is easily solvable by choosing Actions - > Install Parallels Tools. These tools also allow drag-and-drop from Mac to Windows and easy browsing across the Mac and Windows file systems.

With Open Solaris, OS X and now Windows running on the same piece of hardware without need to reboot to switch between them, it is now possible to eliminate the aging hardware gathering dust in my office.